


Bamboo and Cherry Trees

by Ysavvryl



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Alternate Histories, Butterfly Effect, Computer Psychic, Fate, Gen, Shadow Pokemon, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 18:22:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5343980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A child just wanted to solve one problem and time travel seemed like the perfect solution.  Now Celebi has a whole mess to clean up that grows increasingly complicated.  A history of a legend from the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Light

The battlefield was quiet, stagnant air tinged with scorched earth and flesh. Which side had won? It didn’t matter at this point. The surviving warriors retreated to their camps, leaving behind the dead. Yet, there was a man still on the field. A spearhead pierced his right knee, while a bleeding wound stretched across his left side. Assuming he was dead, his peers left him where he had fallen against a young cherry tree.

“Why must fate be cruel to me?” he mumbled, uncertain of if he would live another day. “I was loyal and fought bravely; I have done nothing to deserve this.”

“Death does not take into account the souls of men and Pokemon,” someone said to him. “It comes in its own time.”

The wounded warrior then spotted a Pokemon sitting in the tree. She was a fairy about the size of a toddler, with green skin and dainty oval wings. Through the still green leaves, she looked down at him sadly. Her thin antennae had a soft glow to them, like the shine of a spring leaf.

He was puzzled. No Pokemon around here looked like her, or spoke like her. In fact, he could only think of a child’s tale that mentioned her. “You’re... you’re Celebi, right? The god... goddess of time.”

“Not exactly,” she said. “But the stories humans tell say that about me.”

“The stories I’ve heard had you as male.”

She swung her legs out. “That depends.”

“Are you here to save me? I still have many things to do in life, people I need to return to.”

Celebi stopped swinging her legs and was silent.

“Don’t tell me it’s my fate to die here,” the warrior said, pounding the ground with his fist. “I’ll do anything if I can live past this day. I’ll fight for my life. Even against one like you, if I must.”

“I came to this time to check on this tree,” she admitted, slumping down with shame.

To control time like she did, she had to be powerful. Then why would she do nothing while he was suffering? “You should be able to do something. I heard that you came from a bright and shining future.”

“Right.” Her voice sounded dejected, not what he’d expected. She looked up into the branches of the tree, thinking. “Let me tell you a story. I believe there will be no harm in doing so.

“Once upon a time that no longer is, the world was on the brink of death. The lands were all desert and Pokemon, even the sturdiest, were dwindling to a few dozen. Of the humans, only three survived: a pair of scientists and their child. The scientists worked desperately on a project that was supposed to save the world. They looked for ways to turn the empty deserts into forests and jungles. Although they spent many hours on their project, they kept their child close and were as happy as they could be in that desolate time.”

“What kind of child did they have?” the warrior interrupted. “A son or a daughter?”

“It really doesn’t matter,” was the strange answer.

“Could it have been a son? Every family needs a strong son.”

“It’s just this time,” Celebi said softly. Then she nodded. “Okay, it was a son. He learned many things from his parents, eventually helping them with their project. They used a powerful supercomputer to manipulate the fabric of space and time.”

“A what?”

She thought for a second. “I mean, a powerful oracle capable of looking into the past and learning secrets that had died long ago. The oracle was called Fiji.”

“That’s an amazing power.” It was a strange story. But it gave him something other than his loss to think about.

“Yes. And they would need it, as a terrible thing happened. The woman was working with fossils, ancient remains of creatures who died, when she accidentally revived a terrible bac... illness. She grew ill and slowly wasted away. The father and... his son used their oracle to find out if anything could cure it. And there was a cure, a medicine made from Blue Heart Bamboo. Then there was another problem: Blue Heart Bamboo had died out centuries ago.

“The father’s idea was to make the bamboo grow with their forest research. But it went poorly, as it is difficult to grow a forest for a specific plant. The son’s idea was to use the oracle’s power to send someone back into time when the Blue Heart grew, get it, then bring it back. His father didn’t agree. After a long argument, the father warned his son, ‘If you try to become a master of fate, you will end up becoming a servant instead.’

“But the son would not listen. He wanted to save his mother. One night, when the desert was dark, he talked Fiji into sending him into the past. It wasn’t easy to find the bamboo, because a tribal war was taking place in the same forest. But his real troubles would not begin until he came back to his own time.”

* * *

 

A burst of light appeared, putting an old familiar greenness on the tired earth. A fairy-like Pokemon hovered there, mostly yellow with streaks of green along its head. It held onto a tan bamboo shoot almost as big as its chest. A long cut was along its arm, fresh but no longer bleeding. “Phew. I’ll have to make a note never to travel into a battle again. Huh?”

Clasping the bamboo tightly, it looked around the ghost city of Goldenrod. The Radio Tower resembled a fallen pile of sticks. The Department Store had a standing doorway with a few walls around it, but the rest had collapsed backwards long ago. From the diminished state of the rubble, the damage had happened in years past.

There was also the issue of how it was flying with the piece of bamboo. “What the... Fiji, what happened to me? I’m not home.”

“I brought you back to the location of the time-space lab.” A humming came from the Pokemon’s antennae. “You appear to have caused a great shift in history in your errand to retrieve the bamboo. The Ilex Time-Space lab is no longer in existence.” The computer paused. “Chronological error... I am functional, yet I no longer exist.”

“But how did that turn me into a Pokemon?”

“I cannot answer that question with the available resources.”

The Pokemon hugged the bamboo shoot tighter. There was nothing green anywhere in sight. No life seemed to exist. While his family didn’t have much, it was more than this. “My mind seems fuzzy. I... my name started with a C. Or there was something about C that was important.”

“The name Celebi appears in my database,” Fiji responded. After a second, it added, “I do not have much information linked to this name.”

“That doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter that I got this... mother’s gone.” It flew off to the nearest shaded shelter and wept.

* * *

 

A trembling voice broke the dead silence. “Fiji? You still there?”

“I am here,” the computer replied. “I cannot ascertain how, but I am here.”

“That’s good. I’m sorry.”

“There is no reason to apologize to me.”

“You’re the only one with me. I’ll go with Celebi as my name for now.” Celebi still had the bamboo. The presence of the plant was a comfort in this dead landscape. But separated from its home space and time, the shoot wouldn’t last much longer. After biting off a piece to eat, it asked, “Is there any sign of life?”

“Scanning; please wait a minute.”

The lost Pokemon looked around what used to be the Department Store. Most of this building was collapsed, but part of the lobby remained sheltered from the elements. On the right side of the doorway hung a picture. It showed four men in the midst of a fierce Pokemon battle: Magneton, Ampharos, Ariados, and Weezing against Gengar, Misdreavus, Kingdra, and Dragonite.

“You are the only life on the planet now.”

“That’s horrible.” Before it could slip back into tears, it flew over to the picture. “What’s this about?”

“That is a battle from the fourth regional war between Johto and Kanto, in particular a famous battle between Surge and Koga against Morty and Lance. There were no clear winners of this war. However, it ignited the fifth regional war twenty years later, which ruined both regions and caused them to turn into desert.”

“Oh, one of those wars.”

There was a hum from the computer. “There is a series of chronological errors. I have Lance listed as a Champion of Johto and Kanto, as well as an Elite Four member of both. The regional Leagues are listed as separate and conjoined. I also have listings that Lance was a leader of the air battalions of Johto and a quote from him wishing the total destruction of Kanto. The histories of other men in this picture have similar errors.”

Celebi felt its blood turn cold. “But I only got a bamboo piece. I didn’t cause a war... did I?”

“It seems that your time jump opened up a variety of alternate dimensions. My sensors show that the present time is highly unstable. History cannot decide which version of itself is true. This is why a great deal of the information I know is contradictory, such as details on Lance and the regional wars.”

“What would happen if I made sure a peaceful version happened? Would that fix things in this time and make my family reappear?”

Fiji considered this for some time. “I do not advise doing so. My database is insufficient to determine the full consequences of manipulating the past.”

Celebi frowned. “But what else can we do? If space-time is unstable here, we have no idea what might happen to us. And... I’m the only one alive. I’m not about to become a servant of fate, no matter what father said.”

“I am simply a computer; I do not make decisions such as this. Do what you see fit. I will provide what information and resources I have.”

It was a glimmer of hope that formed Celebi’s resolve. “Okay, then help me figure out how to fix this time.”

* * *

 

A green flash of light appeared over a sparkling pond. Surrounding the small body of water was a thick emerald cloak of trees. The ground was covered in lush grass, which hid Pokemon comfortably. Celebi gaped for a moment. “Wow... the other forest was nothing compared to this one. It’s so beautiful.”

“This is Ilex Forest,” Fiji informed him. Oddly enough, the normal feminine voice had been replaced with a male baritone. “My database shows that you helped make it strong and healthy.”

“I did? Or maybe it’s I will.”

“The correct assessment seems to be that you will.”

He flew around slowly for a while, admiring the peace and beauty. In the last forest, he had been in too much of a hurry to really look. “But it becomes a desert by my time. I’ll have to find some way to make it survive. Would the Blue Heart Bamboo grow here?”

“It was identified as a possible location for that grass.”

“So this is how I’ll make sure it reaches my time.” He put his hand against the tree and noticed something. “Wait... I’m green now.” Flying back to the pond, he got a better look. Instead of yellow with green stripes, he was green with yellow stripes.

“The instability of our time leads to an instability in your appearance. I believe it is the same way with my system specifications, at least the cosmetic ones.”

“I see. So where will we find Lance?”

“There is another pond northeast of here. I placed you here to avoid the problem we had with the last jump, when you got injured by coming into a time of conflict.”

“All right. Thanks.” He flew to the northeast.

At the other pond, he found two human boys talking. One was Lance at six years old, without the blue cape of the Dragon Clan. The other was older, somewhere in his late teens. “Are there going to be Dratini in this pond, Eusine?” Lance whined. “We’ve been out here forever; I want to go home.”

“Toughen up,” Eusine replied, annoyed that he had to bring the younger boy along. “If you want to be a great Trainer, you can’t be lazy.”

“How’s some Pokemon worth all this time searching?” he grumbled back, sitting on the shore of the pond.

“It takes time and effort to get rare Pokemon. They don’t just show up for no reason.” He stepped out to a rock and looked into the pool. It was dark, disguising its depth. “Takes even longer if it’s rare and powerful.”

The boy flicked a pebble into the water. “What the point in gathering your team of rare Pokemon? You’ve spent years on them and still haven’t beat a single Gym.”

“But when I do act, I’ll,” Eusine stepped to another rock, but it was slicker than it looked. He fell into the water.

“Eusine!” Lance jumped forward, but stopped short of the pond.

Celebi darted out from hiding, but Eusine managed to get himself to the surface. His skin had gone from medium tan to light pink. Screaming, he clenched his eyes shut tight.

Was he blinded? “Come this way, quick,” Celebi called, flying over to them.

He swam over, pulling himself out of the pond as soon as he found the shore. “Ugh, my eyes...”

“I detect a high degree of an acidic substance in that pond,” Fiji reported. “It is unusual. If he washes it off with clean water soon, especially his eyes, he should recover just fine.”

Celebi turned to the younger boy. “Come on, Lance, let’s bring him to a cleaner pond.”

The boy looked puzzled, but concerned for his older friend. “Ah, all right.” He took hold of Eusine’s sleeve and tugged gently.

“Who is that?” Eusine asked as they started along. “I can’t see a dang thing.”

“Um, it’s a Pokemon,” Lance answered uncertainly.

“A what? It spoke; it can’t be a Pokemon.”

“I am one,” he said. “I’m Celebi.”

Eusine went quiet. “The Guardian of this forest?”

“What was wrong with that pond?” Lance asked.

Celebi was puzzled, but then Fiji stated, “They cannot hear me. I was programmed to avoid suspicion from natives of the past while communicating with a time traveler.”

“It was highly acidic water for some reason,” he explained to the boys. “Maybe some foreign Poison Pokemon got in there. But clean him up in a regular pond and he’ll be fine. A good one is just ahead.” He hurried along, getting them to hasten their steps.

At the other pond, Eusine knelt down and tapped the surface of the water gingerly. “This one’s okay?”

“It’s clean, and much shallower.” Once the boy began washing his eyes, Celebi drifted off.

As he hoped for, Lance followed him. “You’re really Celebi?”

He nodded. “That’s right.”

He smiled, his eyes sparkling in wonder. “Wow... the adults said that you only exist in fairy tales. Are you really from the future?”

“Many long years in the future, far further than you will be able to see.” Putting his hand to his cheek, he considered his greater dilemma. Maybe it would help to make some of those fairy tales real. “What kind of stories did you hear about me? I don’t know the past as well as you do.”

The boy laughed, then replied, “I always liked the one about when Ho-oh challenged the sun, with you and Lugia.”

“I don’t know that story.”

“Do you know any stories about me?”

Celebi could think of plenty. But Fiji’s voice cut him short. “You should not tell anything specific. It would cause trouble if history shifts and what you said does not come true.”

“If you want to find a Dratini,” he said instead, “you should go to Kanto.”

Lance looked startled. “Kanto? But aren’t they just a bunch of worthless jerks over there?”

“You ever been there?”

The child blushed a little. “No.”

“Then don’t judge any place or person before you meet them.”

* * *

 

Back in her time, Celebi looked around anxiously. The ruined city was still all around her. But instead of erosion, there were signs of a recent destruction. The metal ruins were twisted and the ground was sticky with mud. Overhead, the sky was filled with dark clouds.

“How are things, Fiji?”

It replied in a feminine voice again. “The fourth regional war did not occur. But Lance is possibly a Psychic type Trainer instead of Dragon.”

“That’s odd.” She looked at her arms and noticed she’d changed colors again. “Shoot, now I’m pink.”

“Eusine seems to be obsessed with catching the rarest of Pokemon, such as you. In histories when he was not blinded by that pond, he has a high chance of being successful.”

“That’s not good. I’ll have to be careful if I see him again.”

“I sense another life form nearby.”

“Good.” Following the computer’s directions, she went west.

It began to rain. The wind came in uneven bursts, giving her tough turbulence to get through. Before long, large drops splattered all around her. She considered heading out of the storm until it was safer for her to fly. But then overhead, she heard the flapping of large wings.

“That is Lugia,” Fiji told her. “Take care in approaching him; he flies better than you with a greater effect on the air.”

“Sure thing, thanks.” Celebi pushed herself into climbing up to Lugia.

The larger Pokemon was roaming around lazily. Not a bit of effort went into the beating of his snow white wings. On the other hand, it took as much strength as she could muster with her thin wings to catch up. He didn’t acknowledge her presence until she came up alongside his head. “Celebi.”

She smiled. “Hello Lugia! It’s good to meet you. This is a lonely time, isn’t it?”

“Doesn’t matter to me,” the great bird replied. “I finally proved that I am the strongest of all.” Then his violet eyes narrowed. “But you are still around.”

“This is my time, my present.”

“Hmm.” He swept his wings up vertically to hover. She darted ahead for a space before coming back to hover by him. “So if I defeat you now, you will not be returning to bother me.”

“What?” She shook her head. “No, I’m not looking for a fight. I wanted to ask you about the past, so that I know what to do.”

“Why don’t you want to battle? That is what this world has been about from the very beginning: conflict and triumph, battle and failure. But once this final battle is done, there will be no more conflict. Peace will reign evermore.”

She threw her arms down. “That’s ridiculous! What use is peace if there is no one around to share it with?”

Lugia snorted. “There is no one I want to share peace with. They were all selfish, self-centered, self-righteous beings, myself and yourself included. There will only be peace when there is no one left to battle.”

Recalling her missing family, she couldn’t believe what he was saying. It was kind of sickening, but she tried not to get angry. “Isn’t there anyone you cared about? Anyone you would wish to have peace and happiness? Like, um,” she thought through the legends she knew. “Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres?”

“Who? I know none by those names.”

“He is an alternate version of Lugia,” Fiji pointed out, unheard by the hostile bird. “They did not exist in his history.”

That would be harder. “Um, what about Ho-oh?”

“What?!” He beat his wings furiously, causing her to squeal and rush out of the way of the moving air. “That fool? She challenged the sun and died thousands of years ago. Why would I care about her?”

“But she did exist,” Celebi said to herself.

“Now is not the time for nonsense. Now I will defeat you and prove myself as the ultimate Pokemon. Then there will be no conflict, for there will be no one left to fight with.” He took a deep breath, readying an attack.

She panicked. She had no idea how to battle. With her heart racing, she cried out, “Fiji, get me to when Ho-oh challenged the sun!”

“Searching... time located.”

Celebi vanished as a wall of air raced towards her.

* * *

 

Celebi appeared by a restless sea. Lugia floated on the water’s surface, sheltered by some wave-breaking rocks. With his head tucked against his left wing, he seemed far from the war-loving Pokemon she had encountered moments before. “Fiji,” she asked quietly, “where are we?”

“Among the Whirl Islands, in the earliest time of humans. This is when the Earth was young, the time of the most fantastic myths.”

“Fantastic myths? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“That statement is what is recorded in my database. I merely report the data.”

It lightened some of her stress, making her smile. “Fine.” She flew up to the white bird, hoping he wouldn’t be as confrontational. “Lugia!”

Startled, he swam away while bringing his head up. Then he saw who was speaking to him. He came back over with a curious but pleased look in his eyes. “Oh, you’re an uncommon one. Who are you?”

“I’m Celebi, a time traveler. I’m from the distant future.”

He tilted his head. “The distant future?”

“Yeah. Listen, where’s Ho-oh? I need to speak with her.” Maybe if she didn’t die during this time, Lugia wouldn’t be as terrible in the future. They were connected a lot in myth and legend.

“She’s gone,” he replied, sounding hurt. “A Sneasel told her that the only thing brighter and more beautiful than her was the sun.” He shook his head and spoke harshly. “She should have known better! The creatures of darkness don’t like the sun. But no, she had to let her vanity get the better of her. She flew off to challenge the sun and take its place.”

She hadn’t come in time? “What?! But she can’t do that! The sun is an enormous ball of incandescent gases that burn more powerfully than any fire on Earth. She’ll get killed.”

After looking bewildered for most of that statement, Lugia tensed. “Killed? I just thought that I would miss her, if she had to fly across the sky all day like the sun does. But it has fire powerful enough to harm her?”

“She will get killed. Come on, we need to go after her.”

“Right. But your wings are so small... hold onto the back of my neck, Celebi. I’ll be able to fly much faster than you.”

“Good, thank you.” She grabbed some of his feathers as he beat his wings to enter the sky. Flying that quickly, watching the ground drop beneath her... it was a thrill. Celebi smiled for a moment. But as the air got colder and thinner, she realized something. “Isn’t space a vacuum?”

“Is it what?” Lugia asked.

“It’s very cold and... there’s nothing in it.” She wasn’t sure how to relate the danger to someone this far back in time.

He was determined, though. “If she made it, we’ll make it. I’ll fly my hardest.”

After another minute of climbing, an odd shield appeared around Lugia. Some power wanted to keep them alive. Celebi’s body began warming back up as they entered outer space.

Lugia headed directly for the sun. Celebi wondered if he was flying faster than he could in the sky, because their home star was growing at a massive rate. Before she knew it, the power of gravity and solar radiation became oppressive. There was a distant horizon of blinding yellow meeting empty black. Below them, the sun’s surface boiled and rolled, occasionally reaching out into the blackness with liquid fire.

Ho-oh hovered a couple of miles over its surface. With the sunlight overpowering her rainbow plumage, she appeared to be a washed out red with black edges. She turned to them as Lugia halted his flight. “It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” she said, skittish.

“It’s more powerful than you thought it would be too,” Celebi called out, flying up to Lugia’s head. “It’s a fire beyond fire.”

“A fire beyond fire.” She looked at her quizzically. “Who are you?”

“This is Celebi, from the distant future,” Lugia introduced. “She came to speak to you.”

“You can’t do this,” she went on. “You have to come back to Earth.”

“I thought about that,” Ho-oh said, looking back down at the natural nuclear powerhouse. “My attacks didn’t do a thing to the sun. But I said I would take its place in the sky.”

“Forget about your pride and come back home,” Lugia insisted. “You’re beautiful and loved as you are. You don’t need to prove your worth by doing something stupid.”

“You think so?”

Celebi sensed a change in the fires below. “Ho-oh, look out!”

Before she could move, a solar flare erupted to surround her. Screaming, she flew away covered in glowing plasma. Lugia sent a blast of wind her way, clearing the plasma and her feathers away. He rushed to grab hold of her, fly away from the flare, and escape the sun.

Celebi’s heart raced as they rushed back home. Would Ho-oh survive this time? Or would this incident cause Lugia to distrust her? Celebi prayed silently the whole way. Only as they approached the ground did she think that she was a Pokemon that the old religions prayed to.

Lugia headed to an open field on the Johto continent. He placed Ho-oh gently on the ground before landing himself. When Celebi flew down for a better look, the prospect wasn’t good. The fire bird’s flesh was burned black, without a single feather remaining. She lay awkwardly on the ground, pain radiating from her body. But if she felt pain, she was alive. Celebi dropped down and landed by Ho-oh’s head. Her black eyes opened partly. She seemed miserably humbled.

“This is terrible,” Lugia said with a heavy heart. “That sun is evil.”

“It can’t be evil,” Celebi pointed out. “It simply exists, like this planet, and the moon. It is a force of nature.”

“Don’t be mad at the sun,” Ho-oh said hoarsely. “Be mad at me, but not the sun.”

“Be careful. I wish I could help you more.” He closed his eyes, but soon looked to Celebi. “Can you heal her?”

“I don’t know,” she replied honestly.

Ho-oh rested her head on the ground. “You were right. I was reckless to think that I could defeat the sun. I will be punished with death in this horrid form.”

“No! Ho-oh, there must be something!” Lugia sounded frantic.

Celebi thought, but Fiji’s voice piped up in her mind first. “The database states that Ho-oh’s punishment was to be burned once a century by her own fires, then to spend forty days in the cold and dark underworld. That will recover her from this state.”

She reported this to the other two. “I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you this,” she finished with. “But you will be restored to your former glory after forty days.”

“I hope I won’t be the same foolish Pokemon,” Ho-oh said. Red flames emerged from her back. Within minutes, a strong fire devoured her body.

Hanging his head, Lugia was silent for a minute. Then he said, “I will guard this fire until she comes back. But Celebi, would you mind staying, at least for a little while?”

“I’ll stay, Lugia.” She hesitated. “I, um, I really don’t know much. I haven’t been... I haven’t lived long, to tell the truth.”

“I understand. I can teach you.”

* * *

 

When Celebi returned to her home time, she felt a lot better. Lugia had taught her much, probably more than he realized. Everything from flying tips to battle strategies. It was many little things, but in this situation, every little thing helped.

Goldenrod City had changed again. It was in better shape: more buildings were intact and the Radio Tower’s lights were blinking. But there was a smoldering pile of rubble on the block to the south.

“I am detecting more life forms,” Fiji reported. “Humans are back. Lugia and Ho-oh appear to be overhead.”

“Are they?” She looked up.

Ho-oh hovered under a dark cloud, watching something on her altitude. She looked violet and navy green for some reason. In a dark blue blur, Lugia rushed at her, screaming. He attacked with a wave of dark energy that raced out ahead as he made a sharp turn. It struck Ho-oh with full force. With a furious cry, she enveloped her whole body in red-violet flames. These weren’t her rejuvenating flames. She used them to tackle Lugia powerfully, making him fall for several feet before catching the wind under his violet wings again.

Stranger than seeing them battle was seeing what could barely be seen. There was an unhealthy black glow surrounding their bodies. “Fiji, what’s wrong with them?”

Her antennae hummed as the computer searched out the answer. “It seems that they are corrupted. My database does not have enough information on this, but the chronological signs indicate that they belong to an alternate timeline that is gaining strength.”

“We’ll have to find out more about that,” she said as she watched Lugia and Ho-oh continue their savage aerial battle. Why had this new problem cropped up to replace the other? Sure, things had improved, but a new solution wasn’t as clear this time. It muddled her mind. Before she could figure anything out, she had to dart out of the way as a fireball came crashing down beside her. “Can I get back to Ilex? I need a quiet place to think.”

“That is easy enough.” The computer sent her back in time to the forest.

* * *

 

Instead feeling relief at coming into a healthy Ilex, Celebi felt death all around him. Grasses were reduced to the toughest specimens. Trees were sickly, twisted by a rough life. An amber pond in sight was far deadlier than the acidic one he had encountered last time. “What happened to this place?”

“It is another alternate universe trying to become the main,” Fiji said. “Here, you have neglected this place.”

“But I want to it be healthy.” He sighed. “Then again, I haven’t done much to it yet.”

“If you return, I can begin calculations on how to restore this forest to our time. With luck, we can avoid the battle between Ho-oh and Lugia.”

“You’ve been against this so far,” Celebi said, surprised.

“At this point, it may be best to continue. Would you like to return?”

“Yes please.”

* * *

 

Celebi reappeared in a bustling Goldenrod City. Dirty looking clouds hung in the sky while bright garish lights filled the streets. Flying vehicles flew overhead while a few poor humans hurried along the grimy streets. “My time hasn’t changed this much,” he said, flying along in a sickened wonder. “And I didn’t do much during the last jump.”

“I will scan the instability and the appearing alternate dimensions, then attempt to find a formula to explain the cause and effect cycle. It may provide an answer to this.”

“Very well. Execute the program.”

He wandered around for the next hour. Most people didn’t pay him any heed, concerned with surviving their own lives. He recalled his parents and how they would never go outside because the environment was too toxic. While this environment certainly was toxic, these people endured.

His old life… No matter how hard he scanned his memory, only images came back to him. No strong memories, only impressions. He had been shut in a mostly underground bunker all his life. But his parents loved him, doting on him as the only child in the whole wide world. His education was in the sciences; he had assisted his parents in their quest to create forests from practically nothing.

That was his strongest image. It had been time compression, hadn’t it? Fiji was a space-time analytical computer that could manipulate an enclosed space to pass decades, even centuries, in mere minutes. The time travel had been more of a sideline research that none of them had intended to put to use. According to theory, they could use this time compression to restart whole ecosystems.

Theory never meant reality, though. Celebi remembered passing through thick steel doors into a dead forest. While the soil had been black and rich, soft and promising in his hands, the forest had been equally black and poor. What had killed that time compression experiment? He couldn’t remember. But it had been a crushing blow. That experiment was meant to grow the Blue Heart Bamboo which would have saved his mother.

His mother, dying of some fossilized bacteria. He couldn’t forget that. Celebi knew he wouldn’t. Nor his father, no matter how distant his memories as a human became. But when would he be with them again?

Curious, he located a telephone booth and dialed an operator. “Hello, may I have the number for the Ilex Time-Space Lab?”

A computerized voice much like his companion answered, “The requested organization does not exist.”

“What about the family?”

“Who specifically are you searching for?”

Celebi thought carefully before names jumped out at him. “Um, Doctor Andrew Ilex, or his wife Doctor Jane Ilex. And their child... um... Levi or Celine?” Levi or Celine? Why had he picked a boy’s and a girl’s name as possibly being his?

“There are no matches to any of those names.”

“Oh... sorry for taking up your time.” He hung up. What would it take to bring his family back?

There was a huge crash as a flying vehicle slammed into the side of a nearby building.

Startled, Celebi came out of the booth to check things out. The building suffered only cosmetic damage; it was built to last. But the car was totaled, a crushed hunk of plastic. There was no smoke, no sign of fire. Although Celebi sensed some kind of lifeform inside, she couldn’t see the victim.

A pink blur appeared, and Mew was hovering by the wrecked car. Her deep blue eyes flickered with anger and her long tail swished in concern. It was like a storm cloud should be brewing around her. “Mewtwo, I told you not to drive fast! Get out of there.”

The car roof exploded, blasting plastic shrapnel everywhere. A lavender colored twin of Mew emerged from the wreck. “But that was freaking awesome! Did you see how I missed all the other fliers?”

“And then you crashed into this building! I swear, one of these days, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

Ashamed, he pulled his tail in front of his chest. “I’m sorry, Mew. I was just having fun.”

“Your idea of fun is much too dangerous.”

From what Celebi could recall, Mewtwo wasn’t an exact clone of Mew. Not even this slightly different copy. They must have been from an alternate history, like this soaring metal city. But no matter what history they were from, they were supposed to be highly intelligent. He flew up to them. “Um, excuse me.”

“Hi Celebi,” Mew said kindly.

“Hey, future boy,” Mewtwo added.

Celebi shook his head. “This is my time.”

The lavender one widened his eyes. “It is? This is the end of all time?”

“Hopefully not,” the pink one said. “Something’s troubling you. What is it? You’ve helped me out plenty of times.”

“I have? Well, I will if I know when I’m supposed to be.”

Mewtwo laughed, getting a reproving look from Mew. “It must be confusing for you at times,” she said.

“All of it’s confusing now,” Celebi admitted. “I had a family here; I was human. But when I first went back into time and became what I am now, they vanished. I’ve been trying to fix the problem: I talked Lance into going to Kanto, I helped out Lugia and Ho-oh. But all sorts of things have been going wrong. This time-space area is highly unstable.”

“How so?” Mewtwo interrupted.

He pointed to him. “Well you for one... you don’t look like that in most versions of history.”

He twitched his tail back, puzzled. “I don’t?”

“No. You’re much bigger and more violent.”

“More violent?” Mew asked skeptically, glancing at the wrecked car.

Celebi nodded. “Much more so. No matter what I try, things get more complicated.”

Mewtwo leaned in closer to him. “Huh, sounds like you’ve made a real snarl of time. The more you fight it, the tighter it will choke you.”

Celebi’s heart thumped. “Choke me?”

“Don’t make him panic,” Mew chided, telekinetically shoving her cloned son. “But he is right. If you’ve got alternate time streams all knotted up, the bigger changes you make, the tighter the knot will be.”

“Like in all the sci-fi novels,” Mewtwo chimed in.

“But history is a strong force.” Mew shrugged. “According to the theories that I read, at least. If you don’t force major changes for a while, the strongest version will throw off any alternates destabilizing it. Then again, you may always have to deal with instability since you’re a time traveler.”

“So I should concentrate on small things for a while?”

“Probably. But even those will set off a new set of alternates. You’re best off sticking to this time and not going back.”

He threw his arms down. “But I can’t do that! You said I helped you before, but this is the first time I remember talking to either of you. And my parents have vanished. Without them, it feels like I’ve lost everything. I can’t even tell who exactly I was before I stepped backwards in time.”

“That’s tricky,” Mewtwo said. “You need to go back in time to fix things, but if you do, you risk screwing stuff up further.”

“Exactly.”

Mew drifted a short ways, thinking. Then she came back. “Unless you can find a way to map what changes what, your home will always be unstable. This even extends to who you were before time travel, as who made the fateful decision is in question. Of course, there are better Pokemon to talk to about this. Whether you can contact them or not is debatable. I don’t recall them being accessible for several centuries now.”

“I see. I’m working on finding a calculation on the results of time manipulation.”

The computer piped in. “Celebi, I have the results of my initial scan.”

Mewtwo looked startled. “Did something not speak? Because it seemed like something might have spoken, but it didn’t.”

“You’re hearing his psychic intuition,” Mew told her son. “We’ll leave you to that. I have to talk some sense into him about not speeding.”

“But mother!” Mewtwo whined.

“Don’t ‘but mother’ me. Come on.” She grabbed his ear and teleported off with him.

Celebi frowned. “Did she call you my psychic intuition?”

“That is likely how they understand me,” Fiji replied. “For all I can tell, I might only exist in your head.”

“I see; I hope that doesn’t make me crazy. How did your search go?”

“From what I overheard, they would agree with me. I can only predict the general chronological direction of minor changes. I do not have sufficient data to pick out major points in time to perform major tasks, like bringing a healthy Ilex Forest into this time in a single step.”

“Oh.” His heart sank. “This is going to take a long time from our perspective, won’t it?”

“That is correct. I have some points picked out to start with. Are you ready to begin?”

He closed his eyes. It was discouraging, but he wanted his family back. “Yes, I’m ready.”

* * *

 

Under the shade of the cherry tree, the warrior was barely hanging onto life. It had been a long time since the battle had ended, with his only company being a strange Pokemon. But another person had just arrived. The woman hugged him, her tears on his face. “This isn’t fair. How could you die so soon?”

His life was fading away. But with his beloved by his side, he accepted his approaching death. “I love you... this tree will prove it.”

She sobbed.

He clasped her elbow. “I saw Celebi. Everything will be fine.” After closing his eyes, he was gone.

In a neighboring cherry tree, the time traveling Pokemon watched unnoticed. “It makes me feel helpless.”

In a voice only she heard, the laboratory computer reported its observations. “There are five cherry trees here that are infected with a deadly mold. Your presence has strengthened them enough to fight the infection. They will survive into the spring. However, the new antibody will cause a change: their flowers will blossom with blood red tips.”

Celebi looked down, swinging her feet. “That young woman will return in the spring and believe the blood tipped flowers are a sign from her lover. Instead of becoming a forgotten warrior, he will pass into the legend of these cherry trees. People will honor them and build a town here. It will be called Cherrygrove City, where the cherry trees will be well cared for.”

“And the Cherrygrove cherry trees should be present in your time. It is another step towards bringing Ilex Forest to that point, with your family.”

“Another tiny step.” She had brought hope of a better future to a dying man and his lover.

But only because it was his fate to die and she was a servant of fate. Celebi cried for them.


	2. Shadow

The air was frosty, biting at his wings. Snowflakes filled the air, swirling around in his small wake. And all around him, there was that essence of Shadows. It darkened the hearts of Pokemon and humans alike, overtook the mind by sharpening pain, and gave the body demonic strength. He was flying into one of the last battles, but didn’t hesitate. Celebi pressed on.

A piercing roar rang out over the mountaintop. One of them had spotted him. Before long, there were two responses, similar in power and tone. He had to break through before they reached him.

Celebi’s constant companion, a laboratory supercomputer called Fiji, spoke within his mind. “Suicune is closing in, at four o’clock.”

“Right.” He spotted a cave and ducked into that to continue upward with some protection.

However, it didn’t last. Suicune came straight for him. Celebi darted higher, almost touching the rocky ceiling, in order to continue his path to the peak. In a momentary glance, he saw the tangled and wretched red-violet mane that limped along the beast’s back. Suicune had once been known as the purifying North Wind. As one of the oldest of the Shadow infection, her mind was a mess of base instincts and hatred. She recognized no one as any more than Shadow or non-Shadow, and few people would recognize her.

Celebi sent a burst of Magical Leaf at her. For a moment, he felt an urge to stop and battle her. That wouldn’t be safe. If he gave in to hostility, the essence would be able to invade his mind, taking him over much as it had nearly everyone else. He had resisted it so far and stayed whole. In the extra moments Suicune spent trying to dodge the unerring leaves, he burst through the barrier.

The Shadow essence vanished from around him. He took a moment to relax and calm his racing heart. Although he had stuck to doing just tiny changes to the past, the alternate history of the Shadow Pokemon continued to gain strength. Things grew worse every time he returned home; now even humans were becoming Shadows.

At this point, something big had to be changed. If Celebi’s guard fell, he knew that he would pose a risk to all time. He had a promising plan, but it was more drastic than he liked to do alone. In order to make the right big change, he wanted to consult with someone who knew more about the inner workings of Time itself.

Now that he was past the barrier, it was only a short distance to Spear Pillar. It was a large flat stone square, an odd thing to find on a mountaintop. Uneven rubble indicated that there had been stone columns at one point, but those were gone. Instead, there were three powerful Pokemon holding their grounds.

One had a long neck with a large body low to the ground. Another was large all around, but the crests coming off his head were streamlined. And flying around them, there was the third, a large black creature that seemed otherworldly.

The one with the long neck, Dialga, nodded to him. “Celebi! Wonderful to see you well.”

With a sense of relief coming over him, Celebi smiled. “Hello Dialga. I have something I want to ask you about.”

Before they could continue, Giratina paused in his pacing flight and brought his enormous head next to the much smaller Pokemon. “You! This is all your fault!”

Celebi’s mouth went dry and his heart started pounding. These Pokemon were giants, having existed since the beginnings of everything. And here he was, just a small fairy Pokemon that any one of them could have smashed flat. He had been afraid of this ever since he decided on coming to Mount Coronet.

“Calm down,” Palkia chided Giratina. “We can’t lose the shield after all this effort.”

“And I’m sure Celebi hasn’t done anything about this,” Dialga added in defense.

“That’s precisely the problem,” Giratina growled, causing a shiver in Celebi’s wings. “You messed up my balance by empowering so many alternate histories. The Shadows shouldn’t be in as many dimensions as they are. They should just be restricted to a little fraction of time and space. And once you get infected, you pestilent time traveler, then that screws over the entirety of reality.”

“That’s why you should be helping him now,” a different voice said. Arceus came down, but from where wasn’t easily apparently. This was the first time Celebi had encountered the Creator Pokemon as well. At first glance, he seemed as beautiful as she had imagined. But past that initial impression, Arceus’ eyes were weary and his body was bony.

“I thought you were working on banishing the Shadow essence,” Palkia said.

The strange golden halo that encircled him seemed to be wilted, Celebi noticed. And the way he lowered his head spoke of deep sorrow. “This place is not stable. It will completely untangle shortly, perhaps as soon as Celebi here leaves.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, bowing his head.

“It is a sad and broken world as it is, so it will not be much of a loss.” Arceus stopped in front of him. “Now, explain the entirety of your plan.”

“The entire thing? Shouldn’t you know some of it at least?”

“Go ahead and tell us.”

Celebi nodded. “All right. As the Shadows began increasing in my time, this one, I put more effort into finding out if there was anything I could do about it. The information was surprisingly hard to find; the source of this epidemic was excellent at concealing itself. With some information taken from earlier time points, I was able to pin it down.

“Somewhere in the transition between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a group by the name of Cipher appeared in the Orre region. They initially used psychological stress and breakdowns to develop Shadow Pokemon. The process took weeks or months to complete, depending on how strong they made the state. Looking for a faster process, they researched into concentrated drugs to alter the chemical construction of the brain; Lugia was almost always one of the first Shadows created exclusively through the drug program. Then someone made the breakthrough of creating a virus that mimicked the drug’s chemical alteration.

“From this point on, the Shadows became easier to produce and harder to purify. Each year sharpened that technology until the virus crossed the line to pandemic. Cipher lost all control over the Shadows and, in nearly all cases, erased all data that could prove they were responsible. I’m finding that the line between manufactured virus and pandemic virus keeps moving backwards from my perspective. It moves to earlier times, for most of you.

“However, the beginning of Cipher is practically set into one twenty-five year period. In this period, the Shadows are much easier to purify. I believe if that purification process is made even easier during that time period, Cipher will find it less profitable and more risky. Hopefully, they will cease development before the Shadow virus comes into existence.”

“How do you intend on making it easier?” Dialga asked. “As I recall, it took months while they were in a brink state and the Trainers pretty much had to rely on luck to get past the final lock.”

“The luck factor can be taken out,” Celebi said. “The final hurdle was overcome by the Pokemon remembering something of their old life and coming back to their true identity. And there is a subset of temporal technology that allows for that to be done through computers. A Memory Mirror program can analyze the memory storage of any being and scan backwards in time for references and highlights. Basically, it’s like throwing a camera onto your old memories, even those you can’t remember well. The problem is, the technology level required to create a Memory Mirror is much higher than that reached in the twenty-first level.”

“So you need to get a futuristic artifact in that time era,” Palkia said.

“That’s one part of the problem,” Celebi admitted. “The other part of the problem is that in the time period of Cipher, Orre is a desert.”

“What’s the problem with that?” Giratina asked.

“He needs a forest to be in peak condition,” Dialga stated. “The desert would ultimately work against him, like how being restricted to one dimension worked against you.”

“Fine.” He backed off a few feet.

Feeling less pressured, Celebi took a deep breath before continuing. “Before I became a time traveler, I worked with my parents on a time compression technique that produced a twenty-year-old forest in twenty minutes. It didn’t work perfectly, but we came close. I would have to use the time compression to grow a forest prior to the time of Cipher, so that it is established by the time I need it. Also, I don’t have the equipment to make either the Memory Mirror or the compression machine. I need to figure out how to get to a time where I can make them.”

“I can’t help you there,” Dialga said. “I only travel time in one direction.”

“You need Giratina’s help for that,” Palkia added, much to Celebi’s dread.

“I don’t want to help some little fly who caused this much chaos,” Giratina grumbled.

“He has the capacity to fix this chaos,” Arceus pointed out. “And we don’t want either of you to be infected by the Shadow essence. Do you have the technological know-how to carry out this plan?”

“No.” He sighed. “Fine, I’ll look for a dimension both those things are functional in.” He drifted back out into a circling pace.

“His mind is connected to all other dimensions that he exists in,” Arceus explained. “And he can view dimensions that he’s not in. But he mostly watches.”

“Is it going to be okay to make that big of a change to history, though?” Celebi asked. “I don’t want to fix one problem, but cause a worse one in the process. I’ve already done that, to my regret.”

“What do you know of this case?” Arceus asked. “You know that Cipher began at some point, that they produced artificially-induced Shadow states, and that Lugia was nearly always the first to become a Shadow by the use of drugs alone. Therefore, these three points of history must remain intact, or something worse may come out of your efforts.”

“I hate doing that to Lugia,” Celebi replied sadly. “He generally seems like a good guy whenever I run into a true version of him. He doesn’t deserve to go through that.”

Arceus bowed his head. “It is a case where you must choose the path of least evil. It is a terrible thing to do; trust me, I know this deep in my heart.”

Giratina stopped again. “Okay, I’ve found one that’s suitable. The Shadow essence is not as dense, but still present.”

“And now you both must leave,” Arceus said. “Do not grieve us, for we await your success in other worlds.”

Celebi bowed again. “Thank you so much. I won’t let a world like yours continue.”

They nodded in approval. Then Giratina moved himself and Celebi out of the corrupted world.

* * *

 

Celebi and Giratina appeared in a desert at night. A building made up of a geodesic dome sat in front of them. Smaller domes spread off in later additions. “Here is where you’ll find your equipment,” Giratina said, sounding notably kinder. “You have some work to do, but there is someone there to help you.”

“So you change genders too, huh?” Celebi asked.

The ghost dragon nodded. “As far as I can tell, I have one overmind connected to many minds across dimensions. My body is different from place to place. Good luck.” She flew off.

Celebi checked over himself. He was still sky blue, which was okay but he preferred the times when he was green. Then he approached the building. The landscape all around him was still, but not lifeless. What life was there, though, seemed to be corrupted. In response to this, the building wasn’t all that pretty from the outside. But there was a metal plaque by the front door with an intriguing notice on it.

“‘Ilex Space-Time Laboratory’? My parents’ lab?”

“It might not be,” Fiji said. “But it is remarkably similar.”

“Don’t get your hopes up too far,” he said to himself, then pulled open the door by telekinesis.

Once the door shut, a red light came on. It was a small hallway between two heavy duty doors. A laser swept over the room, scanning him several times. Once this lab’s computer was satisfied that he did not have any potential problems, the inner door opened.

Celebi was assaulted by a bizarre feeling of familiarity and unfamiliarity. This was his true home. Maybe. Or it wasn’t. One moment, it felt right. The next moment, something seemed off. Then it was a completely strange place, which ran right back into home again. His head started to feel dizzy.

“Excuse me,” a woman said. “I’m Dr. Jane Ilex and… you’re a free Pokemon?”

His heart jumped as he spun around in mid-air. “Mother?”

She had dark green hair that tumbled down to her mid-back in uneven waves. And she gave him the same kind of mental dissonance, of being and not-being his mother. Clasping the necklace she wore, Jane said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any children. I think.”

“Oh, it’s okay,” he replied in embarrassment. His heart wanted to clasp to the possibility, but, “You’re like her, though… in another place and an alternate dimension.” His antennae trembled at that. It was crushing to admit this; he wasn’t home yet.

Jane came closer to him and stroked his head. “I’m not sure about having a Pokemon for a child. But I wouldn’t mind considering you family. It seems like so long since I’ve met another not touched by Shadow.”

“I know how that is. Mo… Jane, I need your help. I have a plan for fixing the Shadow problem in the past. It, it will likely change this history, maybe even erase it completely. But it will get rid of the Shadows across many dimensions. I need the technology of this lab to do it.”

For a moment, she was afraid. Potentially erasing history like that was a deterrent in most cases. But then she nodded. “All right. Fiji says I’m the only one left, so if it gets rid of the Shadows in the past, I’m okay with that.”

“Wait, you have Fiji too?” Celebi asked.

“It is only logical,” the one in his head said.

At the end of that thought, Jane’s computer stated, “I sense a resonance from within this Celebi. It seems that he may have a link to this laboratory in some other reality.”

“A lab almost identical to this was my home, before I began time traveling,” he told them.

“Then you should know about our functions,” Jane said. “What do we need to do?”

* * *

 

Jane showed him a computer array of time rings, processors, fans, and other gizmos that looked like it could fit into an oil drum. “This is my most current build of a complete Memory Mirror device. You’d have to find some way to disguise it if you’re taking it into the past.”

“We could make it look like a large rock,” Celebi suggested. “But we’d need to make it look important enough that no one messes with it.”

“There’s also the problem of powering the Mirror. The region you showed me has no civilized development. If you tried to connect to an established power grid, it would be impossible to hide.”

“I’ve considered that. There is a volcano in the region which could have geothermal hot spots. Then again, I don’t want to put a forest I need for my powers near a live volcano.”

Jane smiled. “I do have something that could help. Follow me.” She went to a nearby door and opened up a warehouse.

Inside, there were crates, steel shelving, and a giant thick-trunked tree. It had spotted white bark and broad spreads of leaves. For some reason, there were two hollows in the tree. One was near the base, and could have been explained as exposed roots over lost ground. But the other was in the middle of the trunk, some four stories off the ground. The top hollow could have held a small house inside.

Celebi sensed no connection to it. “You have a false tree?”

“It’s a solar generator station,” the scientist explained. “When the Ilex family started this lab centuries ago, we used a grove of tree generators to power our experiments. I had to make a new solar array when Shadow thugs destroyed the trees, but I remade this one in hopes of being able to use it. They’re resistant to erosion and it did take a lot to bring them down.”

“It looks normal enough,” Celebi said in awe. “That’s amazing. Since I’m growing a forest anyhow, no one will think a thing of this generator.”

“And it will help support the compression growth. If we can make some hyperspace data transformers that can carry their load into the past, which I’m sure is simple enough, you’ll be able to take all the supplies in one go.”

“Good, because I’m still not that great at targeting specific timelines when heading to the future. We’ve got a lot of work to do; what do you need me to work on?”

Jane thought. “You work on the transformers, since you’re experienced with time travel technology. I’ll adjust the Memory Mirror, and then we can work on the compression growth supplies.”

* * *

 

The development of electronic storage and transfer of physical objects had been a major breakthrough for human civilization. First it was items like bottles, small devices, papers, and other such things that could be destructed into an electronic signal, then reconstructed elsewhere exactly as they had been before. Then it was living beings, mostly Pokemon, which were put through the storage process by way of the Pokeball. The process hadn’t come easily; there were records of a terrible massacre of thousands of helpless Pokemon in PC Storage thanks to an accident caused by a frightened Pikachu. And the technology grew tremendously. During Celebi’s time, entire buildings could be zapped into a data storage device no bigger than a pen, then placed elsewhere in the world with little to no trouble.

One problem with this kind of transfer was when there were no cables or satellite links to send the stored item or being on. Such as if one needed to move people, Pokemon, and things to a base on another planet, or from a distant space station. Or theoretically, through time, space, and dimension. For this situation, hyperspace data transformers had been invented. They were highly secure; once the stored objects were placed in the transformer, they could not be taken out until docked in an appropriate matter constructor. The objects could not be damaged nor destroyed.

Celebi looked over the sixth transformer he had made for this project. Oddly enough, the Ilex lab’s design for them looked much like a light green flute. And it could be played like one, albeit a high-pitched instrument. That design was part of the way it worked, though. The six of them whistled in unison, holding the components for the Orre forest.

Nearby, Jane was checking a list they had made of what was needed for the project. It was the third time she had done so today. “You should have everything you need now,” she said, sounding a little disappointed.

“Yeah. Thanks for all your help. This should help choke the Shadow infection’s early development.” He flew a little closer to her. “I’m sorry I have to leave you alone again.” And even moreso for undoing her dimension.

At first, she looked at him with longing, as if she would ask him not to leave. Her expression hardened with some difficulty. “You… you had best go now that you’re ready. The Shadow plague destroyed everyone around me. And it destroyed any hope I might have had in having a child of my own.”

“Mom, you were able to, at least once.”

She half smiled with a tear threatening to come through. “Yes, I suppose so.” She kissed his forehead. “So, somewhere you are my son.”

“Or daughter,” Celebi added. “I’m not really sure right now.”

“You did say that. I hope you find your way back home. Maybe I will be there, in a way.”

“That could be.” He had to say goodbye somehow, but didn’t want to. “I love you, mom.”

“I love you too, my dear child.”

He smiled, then nodded. Fiji linked up to the six transformers and moved them backwards through time once again.

* * *

 

She was green again, thankfully, when she appeared in the vast sandy bleakness of the Orre desert. There were no Pokemon nor humans about. To the east, a volcano was a blurry bump on the horizon. “Fiji, check the surrounding geography to make sure we have the right place for the project.”

“We are at a sufficient altitude, distance, and location from the Orre volcanic hotspots to avoid lava flows,” the computer reported. “The underground water reservoirs are deep, but will be suitable once linked to the project’s cycle.”

It was lonely now that it was just her and Fiji again. Better to keep busy so she didn’t dwell on that. “All right then. Let’s set up.”

After arranging the battery-powered docking stations for the transformers, she retrieved the generator, several large spools of wiring, and the Memory Mirror. Jane had made a convincing looking boulder out of the device, except for the faint green glow that appeared when it was empowered. But that was part of the trick. They had to make the humans and Pokemon think the Memory Mirror was some sacred rock. If it glowed, it was that much more convincing.

Jane had also given the Mirror a circular cobblestone platform to sit on. Part of it was for the look, but most of it was for the power connections to the Mirror and the electronic components for the time compression forest. As the platform was split into twelve wedges, Celebi wired up each wedge, then arranged them into a ring. She placed the Mirror stone in the center, attaching it with hidden connections. Then she placed the generator some distance south of the Mirror. If it was too close, it would interfere with the program’s tasks.

Looking over the arrangement, she knew the next part would be a problem. She had to connect the generator to the equipment, then bury the wires sufficiently deep enough that humans wouldn’t discover them until after Cipher had come and gone. “Fiji, have you found some Pokemon capable of assisting us?”

“Yes, I have located a band of Sandshrew living a mile west of here at a small oasis. They have noticed the generator and a few are coming to investigate.”

“Oh good. I hope they’re cooperative.”

After waiting a few minutes, three of the sandy beasts popped out of the ground. “ _See, I told you it was a tree_ ,” one of them said proudly.

“ _It can’t be a tree_ ,” another countered, although staring at the generator. “ _It’s got holes in it and it ain’t connected to the ground._ ”

“ _It’s not exactly a tree_ ,” Celebi said. “ _But I’m going to use it to put a forest here_.”

“ _Really?_ ”

“ _Now look here, you… weird Pokemon_ ,” the doubter stated, shaking his claws at her. _“Put a forest, here? That’s ridiculous! It’ll never grow.”_

“ _It will too_ ,” she argued. “ _At least, it would if I didn’t have an obstacle in my path_.”

“ _What’s the problem, miss_?” the third asked in a gentle manner.

Celebi pointed to the spools. “ _See those ropes? I need to put them underground to connect that big rock thing over there to that big tree thing_.” She winced at the terminology, but they likely wouldn’t understand ‘connect the computer array to the power generator with the electrical cables’. “ _I can’t dig through this sand easily.”_

“ _We can do that_ ,” he boasted. “ _We’re the three best diggers of the whole desert._ ”

She smiled, trying not to laugh at the three Sandshrews’ prides. “ _Really? Would you please help me, then? They need to go deep, so the roots of the forest won’t touch them_.”

“ _Sure enough_ ,” the doubter said. “ _I just want to see you try to grow that forest. What do you say, guys?”_

They agreed, so Celebi went to connect the cables to the array. The Sandshrew trio took to their job after some discussion. One went ahead to dig the tunnel, the second came in behind to drag the cable through, and the third closed the tunnel behind. While they did that, she went to the generator and prepared it. She was able to hook it up once they came through.

With the sun out, the Memory Mirror began to show faint green lines. Fiji communicated with that computer, setting it to run automatically until it broke down. That would take centuries to occur, giving them plenty of time to counter Cipher’s efforts. Then Celebi brought out the rest of her supplies from the transformers. Chemical bombs that would dig into the sand and transform it from nonviable sand to livable soil. Large flat blocks of seeded topsoil to start things off with. Concentrated water that would give the area a boosted humidity until things stabilized. A large area bioshield which attached to the cobblestone base to form a temporary enclosed environment. A collection of three hundred Pokemon eggs, thrice that amount of microbug and arachnid eggs, and twice that amount of algae, fungi, and bacterial molds.

The three Sandshrews came up on the platform to watch her arrange things. “ _What’s all that for?_ ” one asked.

“ _An entire ecosystem in the making_ ,” she said. Then she added in explanation, “ _Forests don’t just grow on their own, you know.”_

“ _I still think you’re wasting your time_ ,” the doubter stated. “ _But now you’re just wasting potential life with those eggs.”_

“ _I am not. I’ve done this kind of thing before_.” Not entirely successfully, but Jane had grown a small garden in her time. That was with a far more toxic environment than this sandy desert. “ _You should stay on here with me so you don’t get caught in the process.”_

Once everything was in place, and her three helpers safely out of the time compression zone, Celebi activated the hidden machinery via telekinesis. The bioshield appeared first, covering a half mile radius around them with a transparent peach colored forcefield. Time compression went into effect as tall grasses sprang up all around them.

“ _We have to start simple_ ,” Celebi explained. “ _If the grasses don’t grow, neither will the forest_.”

Unseen, the conversion bombs were working on the topsoil. The numerous eggs hatched, releasing a full food chain into the growth area. Those inside did not see outside of the compression zone. At the edges, they only found an impassible peach colored barrier. As the animals established themselves, the trees began to sprout. Quick growing softwoods appeared first, although a few hardwood trees were in the mix. The water trapped inside the bioshield formed its own pattern of scarce rain, but abundant springs. A creek soon appeared around the Memory Mirror’s platform. As planned for, it would help regulate the temperature of the electronics.

“ _There is a forest in there!_ ” one of the Sandshrew said excitedly.

“ _It’s an illusion_ ,” the doubter countered.

The compression ran for a full hour, giving them a sixty-year-old forest when the bioshield went down. “The natural water tables have been reached and tapped,” Fiji reported. “This forest should be stable.”

“ _Are you gonna call that an illusion?_ ” one of the Sandshrew asked the doubter.

“ _It shouldn’t be here_ ,” he said, dumbfounded.

* * *

 

After checking on the forest’s health, Celebi found herself to be worn out. She went to sleep in one of the oak trees. None of the Pokemon she had released into the forest for the compression would think of eating her. And if they recognized how her aura matched the forest’s, they wouldn’t think of bothering her either.

When she woke up, she saw one of the Sandshrews holding onto a transformer. He glanced around, then dug into the ground. Startled, she looked for the other five. They were stolen as well.

“Where are the six of them?” Celebi asked, in a mild state of panic. “We won’t need them unless we have to move equipment again, but we shouldn’t just leave powerful anachronisms lying about in the open.”

“They are underground, but we cannot access them at this point in time,” Fiji answered. “I can also sense the six transformers at various other points in time. All at this place, there are two between now and Cipher’s beginnings, and four prior to the virus. And there is potential for other positions after the virus becomes a threat and incurable by the Memory Mirror.”

“Then let’s get to those points in time and retrieve them. Let’s try it in chronological order.”

“That would be wisest.” The computer transported them to the first signal.

* * *

 

There was a group around the Memory Mirror, three young humans and four Pokemon. The transformer was being played with like a musical instrument by the boy. “It sounds different,” he said. “The tune’s higher than my other flute because it’s smaller.”

The two girls gasped and the four Pokemon seemed intrigued or awed by her appearance. “You summoned a cute Pokemon!” one of the girls said, smiling.

“I did?” he asked, turning around.

“Hi,” she said, coming closer to the boy. “I’m Celebi.”

“Did you like my music so much that you came here to listen?”

Based on the way the girls laughed, she decided to answer, “To tell the truth, I didn’t hear your song much. That belongs to me; I lost it some time ago and came looking for it.”

“Oh. Well, here you go.” He handed the transformer over. “What kind of flute is it anyhow?”

“It’s...” should she really tell him that it was a hyperspace data transformer? “It’s a Time Flute, something I made to help me out. But a little prankster stole them from me, scattering them outside of my notice. If you find another one, would you please return it too? Just play it here and I’ll know where in time you are.”

“I haven’t seen any others like it, but I’ll do that if I find one.”

“All right, thank you.”

“Celebi, why’s this forest in the Orre desert?” the second girl said. “Cause forests aren’t supposed to grow in deserts, but this one does.”

Deciding to stick with half-truths as they wouldn’t understand the actual truth, she answered, “It’s here because of this place. And I need it to be here. I can’t tell you why, but it’s very important that the forest and all this be here. Otherwise, I can’t do the work that needs to be done.”

“And why does that Relic Stone make people happy?”

“It’s not the Stone,” the other girl said.

So they were calling it the Relic Stone. “Actually, it is the Relic Stone,” Celebi told them. “When you gaze into it, it causes you to remember times when you were happy.”

“Can you do that too?” the boy asked. “Make people remember things?”

“That is one of the functions I copied off myself,” Fiji said.

“I can,” she answered, as they wouldn’t hear her computer. And because it wouldn’t be affected by the rock facing, “I can find even deeper memories if there is need for them. There are some curses where happy memories will clear your heart.”

“So you make sure people can always come here if they can’t find you.”

“That’s right. I must go now. Take care.”

* * *

 

As soon as Celebi appeared to the second Flute signal, there was a squeak from an interrupted note and a Pokeball flying at her. She managed to escape the grasp of the energy easily. “Hey, what was that for?”

A teenaged boy with orangish-pink hair stood before her, a Pikachu by his side. “I’m Eagun,” he said proudly. “And I intend on becoming a Master Pokemon Trainer. And you’re going to help me.”

The way he said it irritated her. “May I have the Time Flute back?” she asked, trying to be patient.

He clasped the green transformer to his chest. “I don’t think so. I got it so that I can control you.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. The Flute is an important component to my plans. I need to have it back so that nothing goes wrong.”

“But you’ll do what I say in order to get it back, right?”

“That might work better if you didn’t tell me that was your plan.”

He opened his mouth to counter her, then shut it. “Oh.”

Celebi flew up to Eagun. “Look, I’m in the middle of something vital to the safety of my home in the future. There are far more dangerous people who, if they get hold of one of those Flutes, will threaten all of history. I can’t stop what I’m doing for the pride of one person.”

His face showed a conflict of being hurt, angry, and confused. “But you have all the time in the world, because you can travel through time.”

“I have almost no time when I don’t know when the true threat begins. If you happen to live long enough to see it emerge here, you’ll appreciate my refusal to work with you now.”

“ _She’s being real serious about this_ ,” the Pikachu commented.

“But how am I supposed to be a master Trainer if I don’t have powerful Pokemon?” he asked.

“I don’t think power matters. What matters is that your Pokemon are happy and thankful for your efforts. Taking a Pokemon that obviously doesn’t want to go with you won’t get you anywhere.”

“All right, if you’re going to be such a blunt pest about it.” He held out the Time Flute. “You don’t have to beat the point into my head.”

“You never know with someone you’ve just met.” She took the Flute from Eagun. “I’m sorry that I can’t work with you, but it really is important to me.” Celebi twitched her antennae, letting Fiji know to teleport them to the next Flute’s location in time.

* * *

 

There was quite a crowd when Celebi appeared next. Two were humans, the girl playing the Flute and the boy trying to be impartial when he was clearly impressed by her playing. With them were five Pokemon, one of them who immediately got her attention: Suicune as a Shadow. She wasn’t nearly the crazed beast from the future; her violet mane was, for the most part, clean and unknotted. But she had a thick aura of Shadow around her and her eyes clearly viewed anything around her as an enemy. Suicune pawed at the ground and made her oval crest shine.

Quickly, Celebi dropped behind the Relic Stone to avoid getting struck by Aurora Beam. Some of her intelligence remained, she thought with her heart racing. That wasn’t always a good thing.

“Suicune,” the boy said sharply. He got a low growl in response.

As Celebi came back out, she noted that Raikou and Entei were there, but not as Shadows. Raikou stepped closer to Suicune. A spark from his jagged whiskers jumped out at her unintentionally, causing her to snap at him with her teeth. Nearby, Entei sat with an Espeon and Umbreon. “ _We are sorry that she would do that to you, even in her current state of mind_ ,” Entei related in the way Pokemon spoke only to each other.

“ _It’s fine_ ,” Celebi replied. “ _I’ve seen worse cases._ ”

The girl stopped playing the Time Flute and giggled nervously. “Oops, I got carried away. I had the weirdest feeling that I was playing to a sci-fi movie soundtrack, like we were in the future or something.”

The human pair introduced themselves as Rui and Wes. The latter caused some worry to Celebi. She recalled his name popping up in some of her research into Cipher, but not enough that she remembered who he was specifically. That, and he seemed distant from the three beasts. The only reason he was standing near Entei was because the Espeon and Umbreon were there.

And the way Wes spoke of Suicune was more like an annoying problem, not like a caring concern. “We were able to clear the other two with some difficulty, but nothing seems to work for her. There were a few other slow ones, but not like this.

On the other hand, pink-haired Rui seemed wholeheartedly attached to them. “Raikou and Entei are doing their best to help out, but she doesn’t seem to recognize them anymore. It’s so very sad. Then we heard that you might be able to open her heart even in this state.”

Fiji interrupted her worried thoughts with, “Once the Memory Mirror program is actively hunting through Suicune’s memory, she will not be able to concentrate enough to attack you.”

‘But we have to get her there first,’ Celebi thought. She flew closer to Suicune and said, “I can do that. This might take a little time.” She then silently instructed Fiji to begin the operation.

As she approached, Suicune snarled, getting another rebuking spark from Raikou. Once the Memory Mirror program began running, she stopped and looked at Celebi in a daze. Celebi was tempted to watch the Mirror and see what it would find. But that would be intruding on someone else’s mind without permission, she thought, so tried to ignore the images flashing just outside of her notice. Behind her, the Relic Stone hummed and glowed in resonance. So this part of the plan was working.

Celebi touched Suicune on the nose. “ _Remember yourself_.”

A thought of water passed into her mind, then the Shadow aura around Suicune dissipated. As an odd breeze moved in from the north, the great beast closed her eyes and smiled. “ _That was..._ ” she opened them again and looked around. “ _But what... where is this? My mind is blurry._ ”

Entei barked happily while Raikou nipped brotherly at her ear. “ _It’ll clear in time. You’re well now_.”

Celebi smiled. It was disappointing that she would always enter someone else’s story at just one point, only to disappear and never know the rest. However, as happy as these three were, it was a good point to their stories.

Hopping in a little closer to Suicune, Rui was grinning. “Great! We’re making really good progress; we’ll have all the Shadows cured soon.”

“There’s still others out there,” Wes stated, keeping his expectations practical.

Hearing his voice, Suicune stepped back and lowered her stance. “ _It was you; you tricked us_.”

Celebi remembered then what she had read about Wes. He was the one who captured or kidnapped most of the Pokemon who became Shadows in this first wave. Shaken up, Celebi asked him, “Why are you doing this, Wes?”

“Doing what?” he asked, although he had a good idea of what.

“Helping out the Shadows now. They don’t entirely trust you.”

He paused for a moment, adjusting the mirrored goggles that sat on top of his head. “It’s... some old bird changed my mind about the whole deal.”

“ _Ho-oh threatened to smash his family jewels, if you know what I mean_ ,” the Umbreon spoke up. He got paw-smacked by the Espeon for revealing that.

This caused the three beasts to laugh. “ _Honestly?_ ” Suicune asked. “ _She’s hard to get angry, but dangerous when she chooses to be.”_

Celebi tried to keep from laughing herself, as it would be easier for the humans to tell what they were talking about. “All right, so long as you’re doing the right thing. May I have my Time Flute back?”

“Sure,” Rui said, handing it over. “But would you stay with us? It would help a lot.”

She shook her head. “No, sorry. I can’t stay in this time period too long.”

“We don’t want Cipher having any access to her,” Wes pointed out. “But if we find another one of those Flutes, we can call her back.”

“Of course,” Celebi responded.

* * *

 

The next time it was Rui and Wes again. The Umbreon and Espeon were back, but they were busy this time. Using their respective powers in union, they were attempting to keep a Shadow Tyranitaur under control. Rui wasn’t as absorbed in playing the Flute this time; while she had been not as worried near Suicune, this large green Pokemon made her nervous. And little wonder why: this one had a thick aura of Shadow, almost as bad as what Celebi had raced through in the future.

Wes had a surface calm, like his soul was clad in steel. “Afternoon,” he said. “This one is almost too violent to handle normally. Cipher’s scientists said that this Tyranitaur was a new advancement in their technology.”

Advancement? Celebi’s heart skipped a beat, but then Fiji spoke up. “While its aura is more concentrated than that we saw around Suicune, it is not due to a virus.” It explained what was different.

“Oh good,” she said quietly. When the others gave her odd looks, she spoke up, “This one has been purified, then re-infected with the Shadow curse. Possibly more than once, from the feel of things.”

“Why is that good?” Rui asked.

She put a hand to her cheek, then addressed them seriously. “Don’t mention this to others, but there is a possibility that, in some future time, the Shadow ‘curse’ can be turned into a virus, which becomes a plague. As you cure the Shadows of this time, the much worse variant of Shadow Pokemon is becoming unlikely. I was worried that they had already made progress to the viral stage.”

The girl smiled at her companion. “See? We’re doing a great thing.”

“I know,” he said, but perhaps more to please her than acknowledging their efforts. “Can you still cure this one, Celebi?”

“Sure thing.” She moved closer to the dinosaur, then looked to the two below. “You’ll need to lessen your hold on him so I can do this.”

“ _Be careful_ ,” the Espeon said, as the pair lessened their powers.

Fiji had some difficult making contact with the Tyranitaur’s mind initially. Although it wouldn’t be nearly as infectious, Celebi mentally recited a mantra to keep calm so the aura didn’t touch her. Coming alert again, the Tyranitaur noticed her. He tried to bite her, but the computer broke through his mental defenses and ran the Memory Mirror program.

It took more time to get him to recognize his old memories, but his aura cleared away just the same. The Tyranitaur glanced around at them nervously. “ _Y-you’re taking me back, aren’t you? Please don’t... please just let me be._ ” After his plea, he hung his head.

“What’s the matter?” Rui asked sweetly, coming up to him and patting his side (getting a wince for a response). “You’re all better now.”

“He’s afraid,” Celebi explained. “I wouldn’t use him in a battle for a long time. Still, you might want to leave him out for a while to assure him of your good intentions.”

“All right,” Wes said, but his stance and tone hinted that he wouldn’t think of using a frightened Pokemon in battle, no matter how strong it was. He thought they were weak.

‘Am I imagining that?’ she thought, disheartened that he would feel that way.

“I am afraid not,” Fiji stated. “Your empathy is growing more sensitive.”

After thanking Rui for returning a second Time Flute, Celebi told Wes, “Well I hope this is an improvement from what you were.”

“What?” Rui asked, confused, but Celebi had Fiji teleport them away.

* * *

 

For the fifth Time Flute, the notes were noticeably of lower quality. Celebi saw Wes look down at the Flute, almost in a mood to throw it on the ground. After a muttering curse, he grumbled, “How does she make it look so easy?”

“Wes?” Celebi asked, glancing around. His Espeon and Umbreon were there, but it was just the three of them. “Where’s Rui?”

He seemed startled, but recovered quickly. “She went back home under police protection,” he explained. “We found all of the Shadow Pokemon in Cipher’s database and cured most of them. She took the Tyranitaur with her, but most of the others, we sent back if we could find the previous Trainers.” He shrugged. “Well, except for Entei, Suicune, and Raikou. I freed them to go home with Ho-oh.”

“What about Cipher’s members?”

“Found some, lost some. The international police have custody of the two ringleaders, Evice and Nascour, but they never found the scientist Ein. And nobody found my former boss, Gonzap.”

She noted that he only had three Pokeballs on his belt now. “So what about you and your Pokemon?”

When he looked at them, he was genuinely concerned about them. “We’re going to go somewhere and stay low for a while. I’d happily disappear off the maps, or become someone else. I’ve fixed what I messed up, so I don’t want to deal with this **** anymore.”

Celebi could tell that he wanted to say something, but she couldn’t tell what. Then again, she felt jealous in that he could just walk away at this point. For her mistake, she was going to be stuck without a permanent home for a long time to come. “At least you fixed things.”

Wes clenched his fist, then relaxed it. The steel defense he had before wasn’t as calm or as solid this day. “I think I know why you and the other legendary Pokemon as special, different from the others. You can see the truth no matter how we try to hide it. People are talking about me like some vagabond hero, like I’ve been doing good all along. And the regular Pokemon, most of them are just as mindless about thanking me. They all just see what they want to see. But not you, or Ho-oh. Or even the three dogs or cats, or whatever they are. You all can see that I’m just some loser meekly going through with his punishment. You’ve hardly been around me, but you know that’s true.”

Had she been right to speak to him like she did last time? She had lashed out in a mild disgust at his lack of caring. Maybe that had just been on the surface as well?

Some inner turmoil he was still living with showed through his expression, although he was trying hard to remain cool and collected. “Well now I’m going to go off and live a quiet life, so I don’t have to get involved in any of that again. And I’ll be good now, like all of you probably wanted. But if I may ask, could you do one last thing for me?”

“What do you have in mind?”

He took the Pokeball of the Pokemon he didn’t have out yet. “I kind of lied a while back. Lied to everybody, even Rui. They think we’ve healed all the Shadow Pokemon. And we did get all of the ones that were on Ein’s database. But there is this one left, which Ein didn’t record. I... it’s this one that broke through my greedy blindness.” He released it.

It was a Shadow Togetic, one that was badly off. It wasn’t that her aura was strong; Suicune’s had been stronger. The Togetic herself was made physically ill by being a Shadow. She had a few red patches, like slowly healing scars, all along her white body. And she was a young Pokemon too.

“Most of the others I’ve been able to help by battling them,” he explained. “But I don’t want to put her through that. I just have this feeling that she won’t respond well, even if it does cure her. I had to revert back to being a thief in order to get this Time Flute, but I knew I had to do it. So if you could take care of her.”

She nodded. “All right.” Fiji activated the Memory Mirror and in short order, the Togetic was healed. However, her happiness was short lived. She felt terrified upon seeing the others around her and crouched down low to the ground, murmuring.

“I know what it takes to raise a Pokemon like her,” Wes said. “Obviously, I’ve got two of them. But I didn’t care about what happened to the Pokemon I snagged. It was good money and I had some protection. Then I ran into a couple of the Cipher scientists who had her as a Togepi. They didn’t want to turn her into a Shadow as she was, so they were raising her to evolve and then turn into a Shadow. At that point, I asked them what the heck, why would you take the effort to make a Pokemon happy and then turn it into a battle-crazed beast? They said it was all in the name of science, and power. I couldn’t see the logic behind that, but I couldn’t do much at first. I mean, what kind of guy would I be if I was making a fuss about a little Togepi? But she just wouldn’t leave my mind. I had to do something. So I did.” He shrugged. “Only I got caught by Ho-oh after I blew up the team base and she cornered me into rescuing all the other Shadow Pokemon. I just wanted to use the Snag Machine to get this Togepi, then leave this hellhole for good.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be concerned about any Pokemon in danger,” Celebi said.

“I wasn’t going to get mistaken for some pansy. But then I didn’t want to do nothing either.”

The Togetic lifted her head to look back at Wes. She cooed, “ _I don’t want to cause trouble_.”

For a second, the corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile at her. But then he caught himself and tried to look impassive again. “So that’s how it is. I didn’t tell anybody about her existence, even when it surprised me that she was missing from Ein’s list. Not even Rui knew. I know she would have squealed over her and thought she was just adorable, but I didn’t want her getting any funny ideas. She helped out on the way, but she deserves a lot better than me. Anyhow, I pulled what few strings I have left in the underworld once Rui left to find out where the Togepi or Togetic had gone. Then I find out that the reason she’s not in the database was that in shutting down his lab, Ein was making plans to set up shop elsewhere. People were starting to notice their lab. While he searched for a new base, he made Togetic into an exhibition sample of what he can do. I managed to track down the delivery person before she got back to him.”

“Ein didn’t take her himself?”

“Yeah. He wouldn’t want to get caught with a Shadow Pokemon on hand, so the messenger’s instructions were to either meet him for the trade back or show her to potential investors who could break him out of jail.”

“Makes sense, if he has a henchman he can trust.” Celebi smiled at him. “But you got her in the end.”

“I did. So, that’s all.” He handed her the Time Flute. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why are you doing this? I can’t see how this helps you.”

“Do you want to see a future overrun by Shadow Pokemon?”

“No.”

“Me either.”

* * *

 

‘This is the last one,’ Celebi thought. Then she could leave things to run on their own. So far, it seemed to be working. Although a few had escaped, Cipher had suffered for its crimes. It was already looking much better for the future.

There was a woman here with her Skarmory. She wore a white lab coat with canvas pants. A bit of an odd combination, but she seemed proud of her workplace. She put down the Flute. “So it is true. I suppose you’ll be wanting your Flute back.”

“Yes please.” She took it as offered. “Thank you.”

“If I could though... I’d like your opinion on something. I’m not sure that you could understand it, but I thought I would try.”

“I have no intention of using time travel for anyone else,” she stated. “But if it’s anything else, I’ll consider it.”

“I thought so. Anyhow, this doesn’t have anything to do with time travel. It has to do with your power to cure Shadow Pokemon.” She waved Celebi over to a notebook computer, which she had set up on a small wooden stand. “My lab has been working on a device to make the purification process more efficient. Could you look at our plans and analyze them, if possible?”

Another technology for purification? Celebi was thrilled. “Sure, let me take a look.” she hovered in front of the computer, quickly figuring out the older interface to look over the plans.

It was a modification of the Storage technology, making use of the Pokeball’s ability to transform Pokemon into electronic data. Her purification chamber did the same kind of thing as the biochemicals that Cipher used, only in reverse. Added to that, healthy Pokemon could be placed in the chamber as well; they would enhance the positive feelings trying to break through the Shadow’s closed heart. With some experimentation, it was possible to have a balance of healthy Pokemon and Shadow Pokemon that could break through the toughest of barriers, like those even stronger than the Tyranitaur or Suicune had held.

But not the viral Shadows. Fortunately, that wasn’t an issue at this time. ‘Fiji, what do you think? It looks pretty impressive.’

“It should be functional as designed,” the computer stated. “The healed Pokemon may experience a longer disorientation period if left in the Chamber too long after healing, but the company of other Pokemon will help in that as much as they help in the process. Also, it would seem that this machine would require greater maintenance and input than our method with the, as they call it, Relic Stone. The Memory Mirror set-up, being attached to the arboreal power grid, can run on its own for centuries without any modifications by us. But this Chamber set up should help our goal.”

Celebi related most of what she had been thinking, and Fiji’s thoughts. “But the end goal is the same; we need to make Cipher’s Shadow Pokemon project too costly and risky to continue. Since this speeds up the whole process of purification, that will put pressure on them to search for some other method of profit.”

“That’s true, provided their primary goal in the Shadows is making money. It seems to be that way.” She smiled. “I wasn’t expecting you to be able to understand this technology, but some of my colleagues thought you may.”

She laughed. “I’m from the future. I’ve seen computer systems far beyond yours. But thank you for making this. It should discourage them more.”

Just then, a voice seemed to drift into her mind from far away. ‘Celebi? Would you come here?’

“It is Lugia,” Fiji reported. “I cannot be certain, but he does not seem to be a Shadow yet.”

‘I’ll be there in a bit,’ she telepathically called back. Then she looked at the scientist. “I hope your project goes off without a hitch. I’m sorry, but I have to go meet up with someone else. Good luck.”

“You too,” she called back as Fiji teleported Celebi closer to Lugia.

She arrived at an island dominated by a large metal building. Immediately, she sensed the Shadow Pokemon within the lab. Lugia was also present, as his stormy aura was impossible to miss. Traces of the Shadow influence showed, but how much affected his mind?

“This is an active Cipher laboratory,” Fiji warned her. “We cannot get caught here. He seems to be alone for the moment.”

“I’ll be careful,” she said quietly. She tugged out a window by telekinesis, removed the screen, then flew inside.

And immediately had to dodge a sparkling ball of psychic energy, which then broke the window she had carefully come through. Lugia was chained to a support column, two cuffs around his feet and one around his neck. Despite that, he was trying to spread his wings in the square room, standing up to emphasize his size. Once he recognized her, the hatred in his violet eyes defused into guilt. “Oh ****, I’m sorry Celebi. I called you and didn’t even think twice before attacking.” He crouched to a sitting position and brought his wings to his sides. Shaking his head, he looked down. “I even called you into a dangerous place without thinking about it. I don’t know what’s gotten into me; I’ve been such a fool lately.”

“He is not a Shadow yet,” Fiji stated. “But he is undergoing their drug treatment, which is unbalancing his emotional control.”

Then she had to be careful. Still, she felt her insides squirm as she realized that she couldn’t do anything to really help Lugia even as she saw him suffer. “It’s all right. I might be foolish in coming to visit you here. But you asked for me so…” she wanted to say that she wouldn’t abandon a friend, except that she mostly likely would in a short time.

Lugia looked back to her, then spoke sadly, “So I guess it was right.”

“What was?”

“I’ve had this feeling that what’s happening cannot be altered. My children were captured. You know, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Ho-oh told me where to find the Cipher organization, but I went in more forcefully than she did and was captured for my troubles. I tried to evade capture, but then I had a premonition of the future.” He looked up at the window, the only one in the room. “Of many futures, actually. A dark aura lies just ahead of me, one of madness and pain. I could escape it. I could get my children out of it, with some effort. But because fate is cruel, the brightest future lies through the dark aura. If I try to escape now,” he sighed, “it is uncertain, but it threatens to become a monstrous terror.”

Celebi nodded. “I know how cruel it can be, as I’m a servant of fate.”

“The conflict in your heart only confirms my vision. Do you know what I can do to bring out the brightest future? If you can tell that kind of thing.”

She wished she had something profound to tell him. Or even something ridiculous that would make sense when the choice was needed. But there was nothing. When she had been researching the Shadows, she had tried to ignore how constant Lugia’s Shadow state occurred. “I can’t even be sure of that. But I’m trying to make the creation of Shadow Pokemon too expensive and risky, with the purification simple, in order to discourage Cipher’s efforts. They’re trying to counter me by using drugs to mess up your brain chemistry, as that would be an easier way for them.”

Lugia focused inwardly for a moment, considering this information. “Is that what the business with the needles is? I didn’t know why my self-control suddenly grew ineffective, or why I’ve been moody all the time.”

“They’re trying to make you focus on the negatives and despair. The earliest records of Shadow Pokemon are centuries ago, during a siege of a fortified city where Saffron of Kanto is now. After months of starvation and hopelessness, a small group of Pokemon went berserk and slaughtered everyone in the city. They nearly destroyed the besieging army as well; psychics who survived the incident said they had strange dark auras that clouded their judgment.”

He nodded. “I remember hearing of that. Then, even if we agree that it’s unavoidable, I should fight it for as long as I can hold out.” He moved one of his legs, causing the chains to clatter. “They make that difficult to do. I can’t even feel my family’s presence, although they must be near by.”

“I saw to it that Suicune was healed, and reunited with her brothers. That was a moment of pure joy, and they even stayed with someone they didn’t entirely trust to get there. It should happen to you.” She thought about the scientist with her Purification Chamber. “It will happen; the pieces are in place. There will be darkness, but you see the light of hope in the future.”

“I do,” he said, cheering up a little. “But to make them wary of trying this again, I will struggle. If I can manage to imprint it into my brain before it corrupts, I will make them suffer for trying to control me and my family like this.”

“Great! Then,” a noise in a nearby hallway interrupted them.

“That’s them,” Lugia said. “You’d best leave before they capture you too. It would be terrifying knowing that a Shadow version of you is running about.”

“You don’t know how scary that would be,” she said. “I will see you again.”

* * *

 

When they returned to the future, things were quiet. Oddly quiet, though. Something seemed missing. Celebi drifted along, looking at Goldenrod. “Fiji, how are things now?”

“I sense no Shadow presence in the immediate vicinity.”

“And how far is that?”

“A hundred miles.”

He chuckled. “Good.” He glanced into the windows of a store. “Now if I can just stop turning pink randomly… wait a second. That can’t be good.”

Inside the store, he could see six customers looking through racks of clothes. Four Pokemon wandered around the store as well. However, they were absolutely still. None of them even so much as breathed.

His antennae hummed as Fiji examined the situation. “Celebi, my analysis brought up a new article concerning artifacts known as Time Gears.”

Gears? “Why do I have the feeling that this is going to be messy?”


End file.
